"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Gay For Trump? Redux

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There are crackpot gays, a small handful, who are for Trump, sick and disturbed people like clownish provocateurs Chris Barron and Milo Yiannopoulos, who talks about Trump's "raw masculine eneregy admiringly, said, with no trace of irony, "The man built a gold-plated tower with his name on it! Gay men have a deep, if sometimes brash, sense of the aesthetic, and Trump's is hard to ignore. It's flashy, it's in-your-face, it's fabulous." Even more fabulous was a rumor that swept the internet Monday about how the Republican Party platform committee had finally abandoned it's overtly anti-LGBT posture in regard to a wide list of policies. Fabulous... but utterly untrue. The Republican platform is an unabashedly homophobic document. The Platform Committee's one gay member, Rachel Hoff, a Marco Rubio delegate from Washington, DC, offered an amendment meant to encourage merely a "thoughtful conversation" within the party on same-sex marriage. Of the 112 committee members only 30 voted for it.

Ms. Hoff’s amendment did not call for the party to embrace same-sex unions. It called for an acknowledgment that a growing number of Republicans are changing their views on the issue and that opinions on marriage are “diverse and sincerely held.”As Ms. Hoff addressed the committee, her voice broke. “We are your daughters, your sons, your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues,” she said. “All I ask today is that you include me and those like me.”

Hoff even tried couching her plea for understanding of the LGBT community in a message about Islamic terrorism (based on the mass shooting in Orlando.) And Trump... well he may oppose marriage equality but he invited Caitlyn Jenner to Trump Tower to use the bathroom of her choice and "everyone knows" he parties with gays.One LGBT group, Equality Forum has directly asked Trump in a letter if he supports David Cicillini's Equality Act to guarantee federal civil rights protections for the LGBT community. Although Hillary has publicly pledged to support the legislation, Trump has refused to respond. There are now 175 co-sponsors in the House, including one Republican from a blue district, Robert Dold.

“Mr. Trump’s campaign is in part based on his asserted willingness to tell it like it is. He claims that he is not a hater," said Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director, Equality Forum. “For an estimated 20 million LGBT Americans, the Equality Act would protect them in their daily lives and its passage would send a historic message that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity will not be tolerated by our federal government.”The Equality Act, a bipartisan bill was introduced last year in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. The legislation would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit and the judicial system....“By not responding to whether he supports or opposes the Equality Act, Mr. Trump lacks the backbone and appears to contradict his claim to be a better friend to the gay community than Mrs. Clinton. If these assumptions are inaccurate, we call on Mr. Trump to tell American voters whether he supports or opposes the Equality Act," Mr. Lazin concluded.

So, nothing on the Equality Act but a platform that insists on teaching the Bible as part of American history and is all in on prohibiting Caitlyn Jenner from using the ladies' room.